Saturday, December 26, 2009

Indocrypt 2009

Indocrypt 2009 was held in Indian National Science Academy (INSA) New Delhi, jointly organised by SAG DRDo and Delhi University, from December 13 to 16. Also attended last years Indocrypt 2008 at IIT Kharagpur.
I met there Kishan-da, Subhamoy-da, Rana-da, Bimal-da, Sanjit-da, Avishek, Prem-da, Sumanta others. Kishan-da gave me so much time. I stayed in RAC guest house in Timarpur, near Delhi University campus.
First day was tutorial sessions given by Nicholas Sendrier and Willi Meier. Remaining days were filled with paper presentations and invited talks.
Next year Indocrypt will be held in C R Rao Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science in University of Hyderabad campus, Workshop will be held in PSG college of technolgy Coimbatore, and workshop on teaching cryptography at undergraduate level will be held in Manipur University.

I couldn't see see the tourist places in Delhi due to lack of partner. Kishan-da and others was staying in Aurobinda Ashram. Only places I have seen while going to conference venue by bus are Red Fort, Raj Ghat, Shakti Punj (some thing like that), and Chandni Chowk Market. One day I went to Red Fort in the evening but by that time it was closed. Also due to lack of time I coudn't go to Modinagar, Merut to meet OP and Parmanand, my friends of NIT Rourkela.
During this period, the cold was not severe. The foods in the conference was just excellent. The conference dinner was held in India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Happenning Medinipur

Last week I attended Subhasish's elder brother's marriage ceremony in Medinipur. Earlier I went Medinipur quite a few times when I took admission in Chemistrty Hons in Midnapur College or for Practical Exams or deputation to the VC for openning M.Sc during the final years of graduation in Computer Science from Panskura College. Compare to those days, I was quite impressed to see the development in the stretch from Midnapur Rail Station to Keranitola. Possibly, the setting up of Jindal's Steel Company has boosted up the economy of the quite old Medinipur town.

Met our M.Tech junior Sourav in the wedding reception. Had a good discussion with him regarding his dissertation, his upcoming book to be released in the kolkata book fair.

Papers in the Coming Semester

The subjects, I'll be teaching in the coming semester to the HIT students are as follows:
1. Network Security,
2. System Software and Administration , and
3. Formal Language and Automata Theory.
Many are considering these are bit loaded. Lets see. I am happy to get the paper Network Security as this subject is close to my area of work. The Administration part of SSA paper is new to me... taking help from Google Books... hopefull, i will be able to justify students expectation...

One Update: I'll not be taking Automata, though I was interested to take it.

Packed Novemeber

The month of November was of little bit pressure. I Had to finish the syllabus of Microprocessor & Microcontroller. Apart from my own slots, I had to take slots of another faculty who had already finished her syllabi to complete my portion. Lets see how my students would perform in the university exam...

There were setting the question papers, invigilation for second class test, correcting the answer scripts, different meetings etc..

Friday, October 9, 2009

Few Online Research Magazine

We can surf the following sites to get the feeling of progress/overall scenario in the science community -
Scientific American Magazine: http://www.scientificamerican.com/sciammag/
Resonance Journal of Science Education: http://www.ias.ac.in/resonance/
Current Science Journal of Research: http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/
Royal Society Science News : http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=8471

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Royal Swedishs Academy of Sciences has given the following as press release in their website http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/press.html
"The Royal Swedish Adademy of Scienceshas decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009 jointly to
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge,United Kingdom
Thomas A. Steitz, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
Ada E. Yonath, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
"for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome"

The Ribosome translates the DNA code into life
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009 awards studies of one of life's core processes: the ribosome's translation of DNA information into life. Ribosomes produce proteins, which in turn control the chemistry in all living organisms. As ribosomes are crucial to life, they are also a major target for new antibiotics.
This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry awards Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath for having showed what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at the atomic level. All three have used a method called X-ray crystallography to map the position for each and every one of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome.
Inside every cell in all organisms, there are DNA molecules. They contain the blueprints for how a human being, a plant or a bacterium, looks and functions. But the DNA molecule is passive. If there was nothing else, there would be no life.
The blueprints become transformed into living matter through the work of ribosomes. Based upon the information in DNA, ribosomes make proteins: oxygen-transporting haemoglobin, antibodies of the immune system, hormones such as insulin, the collagen of the skin, or enzymes that break down sugar.
There are tens of thousands of proteins in the body and they all have different forms and functions. They build and control life at the chemical level.
An understanding of the ribosome's innermost workings is important for a scientific understanding of life. This knowledge can be put to a practical and immediate use; many of today's antibiotics cure various diseases by blocking the function of bacterial ribosomes. Without functional ribosomes, bacteria cannot survive. This is why ribosomes are such an important target for new antibiotics.
This year's three Laureates have all generated 3D models that show how different antibiotics bind to the ribosome. These models are now used by scientists in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity's suffering."


What Dr. Ramakrishnan says about the reason why he changed his area of work: “Well, I’ll be honest with you. I was a theoretical physicist but my PhD work was on a problem that was not particularly interesting to me at the time. And I used to subscribe to Scientific American and found that there were all these wonderful discoveries happening in biology…. So, I decided to switch.” Besides his parents were peer biochemist. His parents were engaged in research in the West. In 1955, when the University of Baroda invited his father C.V. Ramakrishnan to join the MS University, Baroda in Gujarat, the couple gave up their career in north America and returned home. Together, C.V. Ramakrishnan and Rajalakshmi set up the biochemistry faculty at the University , and won global recognition for their work on the role of nutrition in brain development. Their young son was then specialising in physics and had already done his BSc. from the University of Baroda and his PhD. later from Ohio University, both in physics.
Then he joined Yale as a post-doctoral fellow in the chemistry department.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

GATE CS Previous Year Question papers

2015 Papers (3 sets): http://www.gate.iisc.ernet.in/gate-ques-2015/CS_SET_1_GATE_2015.pdf
                                        http://www.gate.iisc.ernet.in/gate-ques-2015/CS_SET_2_GATE_2015.pdf
                                        http://www.gate.iisc.ernet.in/gate-ques-2015/CS_SET_3_GATE_2015.pdf
2014 Papers (3 sets)http://www.gate.iisc.ernet.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CS01_2014.pdf
                                         http://www.gate.iisc.ernet.in/2014questions/CS02_2014.pdf 
                                         http://www.gate.iisc.ernet.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CS03_2014.pdf
2013 Paperhttp://www.gate.iisc.ernet.in/2013questions/CS.pdf
2012 Paperhttp://gate.iitkgp.ac.in/gatepapers/2012/cs_2012.pdf
2011 Paperhttp://gate.iitkgp.ac.in/gatepapers/2011/cs_2011.pdf
2010 Paperhttp://gate.iitkgp.ac.in/gatepapers/2010/cs_2010.pdf
2009 Paperhttp://gate.iitkgp.ac.in/gatepapers/2009/cs_2009.pdf
2008 Paperhttp://gate.iitkgp.ac.in/gatepapers/2008/cs_2008.pdf
2007 Paperhttp://gate.iitkgp.ac.in/gatepapers/2007/cs_2007.pdf

In future posts, I plan to write more on preparations in GATE.

GATE 2010

Few Information on GATE 2010
  • Organizing Institute: IIT Guawahati
  • Online Exam for Mining (MN) and Textile (TF).
  • Biotechnology (BT) has been introduced as an independent paper from GATE 2010.
  • Each paper contains 65 questions carrying 100 marks.
  • Each GATE paper shall have a common General Aptitude (GA) component carrying 15 marks from GATE 2010.
  • Questions on Engineering Mathematics carrying 15 marks (for most of the GATE papers).
  • Negative Marking: 1/3 mark will be deducted for each wrong answer of questions carrying 1 mark. 2/3 mark will be deducted for each wrong answer of questions carrying 2 marks. (for most of the GATE papers).
  • From last year, there is one paper for both CSE and IT students. Paper code is CS.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Projects in various IITs, IISC, ISI

Various Institutes like IITs, IISC, ISI run many research projects where they recruit temporary project staffs. In these requirements minimum criteria is often B.Tech/B.E in a particular branch depending on the nature of the project. Often tenure of these projects are for more than one year.
In this period of recession, many engineering graduates can engage themselves in these projects, and this experience will definitely help them to be placed in industry or academic career. In the below, some addresses are given:
ISI Kolkata - http://www.isical.ac.in/jobs.php
IIT Kharagpur - http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/topfiles/sric_job.php
Similarly one can regularly surf the website of NITs and other national level institutes/Universities such as TIFR, Jadavpur University, BESU, JNU, Anna University, CSIR/DAE/.. funded research organizations such as IICB, Bose Institute, IACS etc. for Basic Sciences and Bio Sciences related project positions.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

UGC NET Question Paper on Computer Science & Applications

A good news ! UGC has uploaded few of previous year's question papers for subjects for which it conducts NET examination. One can visit the webpage http://www.ugc.ac.in/inside/oldqp.html and search for any particular subject.
For Computer Science & Applications the subject code is 87. And the site address is http://www.ugc.ac.in/inside/oldqpyr.php?sub=87
UGC conducts NET exam twice a year, once in June and other in December. They have uploaded following question papers: Dec. 07, Jun. 07, Dec. 06, and Dec. 05.
One can even get to know her/his marks obtained in the exam - http://www.ugc.ac.in/inside/marks.html. This is very helpful in the sense we can understand how close we were to the target.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Football Match in HIT

Last Week there was final match between Civil Vs Food Tech n Bio Tech departement students of HIT. Civil own the match. After that there was a match between staffs (Chairman's Team Vs Principals Team). I Played for Principal's Team.
After Listening of this match to be played, I was very enthusiastic to participate - after initial hesitation. SkS sir of MCA n SM sir of CSE also played for our team. Last ween there a bit of rain, and the ground was quite slashy. Enjoyed the match.
I had a long wish for football. After school days, there was no football till NIT life at Rourkela. In NIT we played a lot of football. We m.tech students used to play among ourselves - mainly students from Kerala. Last year during this time (in Aug Last week I guess) there was inter hall Football tournament in NIT Rourkela. And we participated. Before us M. Tech students from C V Raman Hall never participated in Football !! From Monday Morning online Newsletter of NIT RKL (http://mondaymorning.nitrkl.ac.in/mmb/pages/frontpage.aspx) I got to know that htis year also our juniors kept our tradition and participated in Football.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Project Positions in Cryptography in ISI Kolkata

Project Title: Research & Development of some Cryptographic Primitives.
Position: Project-linked personnel
Number of vacancies: 4
Consolidated Salary: Rs. 15,000 to 18,000/- p.m.
PI: Prof. Bimal Roy, Applied Statistics Unit, ISI (www.isical.ac.in/~bimal)
Qualification: M.E/M.Tech or M.Sc (Math/Stat/CS/Electronics), BE/B.Tech or MCA.
Last Date of Application: 10 September 2009
Detail of the ADVT can be downloaded from the following Link
http://www.isical.ac.in/download.php?file=JobApplicationFiles/Appl SU.pdf

Note: Cryptology Research Group (www.isical.ac.in/~crg) at ISI Kolkata under Prof Bimal Roy is world famous group. Anybody interested to work in Cryptography would definitely get exposure to a very exciting atmosphere of work there.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Right Question and Kid Nobel

I was reading an article "The Power of Question" by Richard N Zare in the Science Education Journal Resonance (http://www.ias.ac.in/resonance/) August 2009 volume, published by Indian Academy of Sciences (http://www.ias.ac.in/). I quote some portion from the article.

".. some question is at the center of every scientific and technological advance, and fundamental questions underlie every humanistic quest to comprehend the world about us. The question is a central aspect of both learning and knowledge creation. Yet, students often seem to value more the answer than the question... It is my contention that posing a new question may be the more valuable pursuit – for it is by questions that we probe the unknown and discover new paths to take for ourselves..."
He then described about a platform for children upto the age 18 for raising a good question and justifying that question's merit.

"... This competition, which some have nicknamed the “kid Nobel,” is meant to foster inquisitiveness and creativity in young people around the world. It is open to anyone, from anywhere, so long as the participant is under eighteen years of age (http://www.moleclues.org/). Children as young as eight from all over the planet participated in the competition via the free science-discussion Molecular Frontiers website (http://www.molecularfrontiers.org/) where they could chat with young scientist mentors or their peers in an environment that was designed around our moto: Curiosity–Creativity–Honesty–Knowledge. The competition entrants, in addition to asking a short question related to molecular science, had to explain to the judges why they thought theirs was an important question, where they have already looked for the answer, why they were unsatisfied with the answers they received, and what they suggest scientists do to obtain better answers. The winning entries sounded simple at first glance, yet quickly made for furrowed brows among the world-caliber scientist jury. For instance, Vladimir Leopards, age 15, wondered “Why aren’t plants black?” noting that since black absorbsmore sunlight than green, why haven’t plants evolved to take advantage of this extra energy available for photosynthesis?.."
Sri Ramakrishna dev told that to be innovative we should always be like children who are always questioning and wondering...
Also I read an interview of Mr. Kumar (?) of famous Super 30 free coaching centre in Patna, Bihar (http://www.super30.org/) for poor students to prepare for IIT JEE, that it's very important for a good teacher not to give correct answer to students but to pose right question to the students so that they themself come out with correct answer.
(I first heard of them while watching the movie Rang De Basanti in TV.. During breaks, they showed about 5 exceptional people from different parts of our country who are trying to make our society better by their unique efforts..)

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Projects in IIT kgp and ISI Kol

(1). Project at IIT KGP (http://iitkgp.ac.in/topfiles/sric_job_details.php?serial=1162)
Project Title: Investigation of Cryptanalytic Techniques
POsition: Senior Research Fellow (SRF) /Junior Research Fellow (JRF)
Number of vacancies: 1
Consolidated Compensation: Rs. 12,000 to 15,000/- p.m.
Coordinator / PI: Prof. Abhijit Das, Dept. of Comp. Sc. & Engg, IIT KGP.
Qualifications & Experience
BE/ME (or equivalent) in CSE. Students from other branches of Engg. (Electrical/ Electronics/Instrumentation) with good academic records may also apply. Applicants with marks below 75% in Class X or XII, or with CGPA (or equivalent) below 6.5 (or marks below 65%) in BE/ME will not be considered.
Last Date for application : 30 Aug 2009

(2). Projects at ISI Kolkata
( http://www.isical.ac.in/download.php?file=JobApplicationFiles/ACMU.pdf )
Project Titles: (i) "Geometric Covering Problem"
(ii) "Moving Guards in Polygonal Environment"
PI: Prof B.P. Sinha, Advanced Computing & Mocroelectronics Unit.
Posts: 02 Project linked person (one for each of) purely on temporary basis
Qualification: ME/MTech/MCA/MSc/BE/BTech
Walk-in on 15 th September 2009 at 10 AM at ACMU unit ISI Kolkata

Swine Flu at HIT

Yesterday one student of HIT was confirmed to be Swine Flu affected. There was panic among many students, and that was natural. In the evening, college authority notified suspension of classes for this week. Recently, there is little bit of Swine Flu outbreak in our country. City like Pune is worst affected. As I am teaching Microproceesor, thinking to utilize this week to go through more deep into the subject. Also have to go through Unix shell programming if time permitted.
My parents are reaching home today. They were in P Sai Nilayam, Andhra Pradesh for little over a month for my fathers prostate operation in the Sai Baba's hospital (http://www.srisathyasai.org.in/Pages/Service_Projects/psn_sup.htm). The treatment including surgery is provided completely free of cost to the patients. So it's really astonishing just to think how many noble minded people are donating generously so that this kind of completely free treatment is provided to the people. Due to several reasons like sudden high blood pressure, infection at urinary system, post operation bleeding etc, the total process of treatment of my father took more time than the usual.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Couldn't Attend the National Workshop on Cryptology

Our paper "On Resiliency of Orthogonal Array based Key Predistribution Scheme" was accepted in 9th National Workshop on Cryptology (http://www.svnit.ac.in/CRSI). This workshop was held in NIT Surat from 7-9 August. Total 17 papers were selected for the workshop. Objective of this workshop is to provide a platform for Indian researchers and students to meet and exchange their ideas on cryptology. Also to make the researchers aware of recent progress in this fieled, talks by many eminent professors and scientists are arranged in every workshop.

I registered for it (It's free for members of Cryptology Research Society of India) and booked the ticket for presenting our paper there. But on 6th August I had to cancel the tickets as I didn't get leave from my institute. It would have been great to be there and present there. But our junior at NIT Rourkela, Sourav Addya talked to Prof Bimal Roy there regarding my Registration kit including Proceedings and brought that for me. Thanks Sourav. Prof Bimal Roy gave a talk on Key Predistribution. This talk was not among the pre scheduled list of talks.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Workshop on Teaching Cryptology at Undergraduate Level

Attended the "Workshop on Teaching Cryptology at Undergraduate Level" at ISI kolkata from 15-19 June 2009 (http://www.crsind.com/workshop-09.html). I didnt register earlier, as I had phd interview at iit kgp on 17th and walk-in at haldia on 19th. But Bimal-da (Prof Bimal Roy) advised to register with fee waiver...
It was very very halpful... Bimal da himself, Palash-da, Subhamoy-da, Prof Pandurangan IIT Madras, and the director IMSC Chennai (Prof Balu) and other research scholars gave talks in this workshop. But due to the aforesaid reasons I couldn't attend the workshopon 17th and 19th.

Begining of a New Chapter

Today I joined as lecturer in Haldia Institute of Technology (http://www.hithaldia.in/) in CSE department. When the M. Tech course was about to finish, I started applying against almost all advertisements for faculty in west bengal and in orissa too ! Appeared in interview in two colleges: First in C V Raman Engg College Bhubaneswar on 29th May, and then in Haldia Inst of Tech on 19th June, and both the colleges offerred position there.

Ph d Interviews

I was so glad to see my name in the list of candidates called for interview for JRF at ISI kolkata. I was not expecting it. I got one months time for preparation for the interview. But finally i couldnt clear the interview hurdle. Almost 200 students appeared for JRF exam for ISI (http://www.isical.ac.in/~deanweb/TOTALCANDIDATEDATA2009.pdf). Among them around 30 applicants qualified the written test and called for interview (http://www.isical.ac.in/~deanweb/JRFCSINTLLIST2009.pdf).
In IIT KGP they called me only for EC dept, not for CS . I went there with the hope to be familiar with the written test question pattern. There was SOP (statement of purpose), math, and subject. I got 8.5 in SOP, 18 in math, 14 in subject - total 42.5 in written. there also I couldnt make into the final list of selected candidates.
I applied in IIT Madras, and IISC. But they didnt call me for interview...

Completed M. Tech

Its almost one month We completed M. Tech at NIT Rourkela. My prsentation was on 7th June. Prof Arun K Pujari, VC of Sambalpur University was the external. He pointed out several mistakes in my presentation.
At first I thought of Return to home on 9th night. Then changed plan and booked ticket on 11th. On 8th, after presentation of all students got over, Srichandan, Shyju, and Shine gave a party to all of our dept claas mates and few phd scholars/young faculties in Institute guest house. There was a short prograpm before dinner. Every body expressed their thoughts.

On 9th night I was the host to my friends at for a party at the roof top of our hostel !

While returning, so many friends came to Rourkela station to send off me - Parma, OP, Vikas, Aloke, Srichandan, Thakre, Gaurav, Narang, Shyju, Dheeraj, Nitesh.

I am missing the campus life of NIT Rourkela.. It was amazing......

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

ISI Exam, S S Patna High School, Narayan Murthy Speech

10th May was date of ISI written exam. Unfortunately I couldnt write well in the exam. It is almost certain that I wouldn't be getting call for Interview. Now next two weeks have to be busy with m.tech thesis writting. 26 May is the submission date.

Went to home on 8th. Experienced a rare event while going to home by train this time. I had ticket in Koraput-Howrah Exp. There I met the doctor of IG Park Rourkela in our coup. Few months back also I met him n his family in the same coup in Porbandar-Howrah Exp. He is a vetenary doctor. And it turned that he knows Nishith Panda, who studied in Shyam Sundarpur Patna High School. He was the elder brother of Asit Panda who was 2 year senior to me and we stayed in the same room where our beloved teacher Shymapada Ghorai babu sir used to stay. Nisith Panda was in class XII when I was in class V only (in the year 1988). I told the doctor this time that (I didnt ask his name !, He was earlier posted in Alipore Zoo) in between I have read a news article that Nishith Panda is now Paschim Medinipur district animal husbandry dept director or so.

Come back to Rourkela today. It seems few more days at home would have been nice. Which is possible after our result in June 2nd week. Then have to haunt for lecturership in colleges. Due to recession the situation is getting worse.... But wise people says that brave people extract maximum advantages in the tough times.

Back in home, I was reading an old collection of Narayan Murthy's graduation day speech in an university in US. This speech can be accessed at
http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/may/28bspec.htm.
He shared some of his experiences in life with the graduating students. I quote the inspiring lines from his speech:

1. "..importance of learning from experience. It is less important, I believe, where you start. It is more important how and what you learn. If the quality of the learning is high, the development gradient is steep, and, given time, you can find yourself in a previously unattainable place. Learning from experience, however, can be complicated. It can be much more difficult to learn from success than from failure. If we fail, we think carefully about the precise cause. Success can indiscriminately reinforce all our prior actions. "

2. "A second theme concerns the power of chance events. As I think across a wide variety of settings in my life, I am struck by the incredible role played by the interplay of chance events with intentional choices. While the turning points themselves are indeed often fortuitous, how we respond to them is anything but so. It is this very quality of how we respond systematically to chance events that is crucial."

3. "The mindset one works with is also quite critical. ... a fixed mindset, creates a tendency to avoid challenges, to ignore useful negative feedback and leads such people to plateau early and not achieve their full potential. ...a growth mindset, leads to a tendency to embrace challenges, to learn from criticism and such people reach ever higher levels of achievement. "

"... Based on my life experiences, I can assert that it is this belief in learning from experience, a growth mindset, the power of chance events, and self-reflection that have helped me grow to the present.
Back in the 1960s, the odds of my being in front of you today would have been zero. Yet here I stand before you! With every successive step, the odds kept changing in my favour, and it is these life lessons that made all the difference.
My young friends, I would like to end with some words of advice. Do you believe that your future is pre-ordained, and is already set? Or, do you believe that your future is yet to be written and that it will depend upon the sometimes fortuitous events?
Do you believe that these events can provide turning points to which you will respond with your energy and enthusiasm? Do you believe that you will learn from these events and that you will reflect on your setbacks? Do you believe that you will examine your successes with even greater care?
I hope you believe that the future will be shaped by several turning points with great learning opportunities. In fact, this is the path I have walked to much advantage.
A final word: When, one day, you have made your mark on the world, remember that, in the ultimate analysis, we are all mere temporary custodians of the wealth we generate, whether it be financial, intellectual, or emotional. The best use of all your wealth is to share it with those less fortunate.
I believe that we have all at some time eaten the fruit from trees that we did not plant. In the fullness of time, when it is our turn to give, it behooves us in turn to plant gardens that we may never eat the fruit of, which will largely benefit generations to come. I believe this is our sacred responsibility, one that I hope you will shoulder in time."

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Shubho Nababarsho

Yesterday was Bengali New Year or 'NabaBarsho'. Day before yesterday Rajib of CH told me that faculties and their families have taken an initiative to celebrate this new year in the evening. I informed our junior Sourav to inform his friends about this program. It was arranged in the North Guest House of our NIT Rourkela campus. Yesterday evening around 20:30 the program started. Faculties earlier told that they have not thought about any cultural program, and we are welcome to do any such. Sourav is an good artist. He informed his friends that they have to perfomr any event.

Before the program began, I had the impression that now it 1417 Bangabdo :) , but sourav told that its 1416. Sourav was not ready to be anchor. He told me to be anchor of the program. I noted down few bengali quotations from poems such as banglar mati, banglar jol ..., and abar asibo fire dhansiri-tir tire .... Two students from M. Tech 1st year Debaroti sang a Tagore song, and Shubhasree did a elocution. Sourav did elocutions, mime. Daughter of a faculty performed an Odisi dance. Their performances were really outstanding. Although, it was arranged in a homely manner, and we faced some problems like microphone disconnection etc, but still all seemed to enjoyed the program. Our Director sir also came during last minutes. One faculty, and another family member of a faculty shared their experiences, nice feelings in this campus over last 27 years. Also they told that this is the first such attempt to celebrate poila Boishakh in this manner. All agreed to to continue this and also to do programs like bijoya sammiloni or Rabindra-Najrul Jayanti. After the program there was arrangement for dinner. The food was very good.

Also I met Kundu madam of CH. I told her I had met earlier during initial months of 2007-08 session, and when i told about the reference of prof Tapas Samanta of ISI kol, then she recognized. Since I didnt meet her after that for so long days, she thought I might have discontinued the course.

Our M. Tech CS juniors like Neelkanta, Tamal, Neelam, Ashoke came. The turn out from student community was mainly from M.Tech. Due to short period of notice many B. Tech students couldnt be communicated, and some didnt come, though informed. But many senior faculties told that in next July when new session will begin, then the Rabindra-Nazrul Jayanti will be organized in A. V Hall and there all the students will be invited, and also Dean Madam was telling that from next time students will be organizing all these events. But we final year students will miss that...

After the cultural program I phoned and talked to my mother. My brother sent a e-greetings. In every Naba-barsho, shubho Bijoya, new year i plan to send my wishes by mail to me dear ones.. but i rarely could do that !! At last, Shubho Nababarsho to all, and wish this 1416 be good to everybody.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

One more paper in eprint

Few days back, suddenly thought to meet my M.Tech thesis guide, when I saw his room is open in the evening. That day only, few hours back I got the confirmation for acceptance of the paper "n A Deterministic Approach of Blocks in Transversal Design based Key Predistribution. Cryptology eprint Archive. http://eprint.iacr.org/2009/156. As I wrote in an earlier post, two other paper also got accepted there. My guide knew only about the first knew. By knowing the current status, he was happy. He adviced to send the review paper in IETE Technical Review journal. I also thought to send the survey paper to Elsevier Computer Science Review. By seeing guide happy, I was feeling somewhat relieved.

Not a Good Day !

I needed to make a D.D for IIT KGP towards phd form fill up. Friends told me that if I make online DD, the service charge is not required upto 30th April. By nature I am somewhat not enthusiastic to accept new things at first. By knowing this, I wanted to change this mentality intentionally. Yesterday completed the online transaction for this. Today Bank told because I did the transaction in afternoon yesterday, it will not be possible to give the DD for them instantly, it will take some time. So I went to bank again at 14:30. Recess timing of the branch is 14-14:30. When at 15:00 the concerned person didnt come I came to Academic Section for taking back the GATE 2007 score card, for which I had applied in the morning. After reaching at bank I am told that someone already has taken my DD !!! But they even didnt take signature of receiver, as they do usually. I thought to cancel the DD, but again who has been given the DD his/her application at IIT KGP will be at problem ! Another bank staff suggested an alternative, so that they can issue a duplicate DD with same journal number but different DD number. At the same time the earlier DD will also remain valid. Waited till 16:30 to get the DD. The person who was responsible for this mess, said 'sorry for delay' while delivering the DD !!!! The thought that was coming to my mind was it better to get the DD by manually ?? Atleast so much time wouldnt have wasted... As a result I couldnt post the application also.. because the post office take posts upto 16:00 hrs only. Also in the morning, went to consult the institute doctor, for skin allergy. But he said its due to dryness of the skin. and prescribed a moisturiser kind of cream for skin. Went to CWS medical shop - but that medicine is not available there ! Total waste of time !! As if i would have used the time effeciently otherwise !!! But this is what Life offers you sometimes... Started to read Udi Manber's Algo book... lets go through it..

Friday, April 3, 2009

Visit to Puri

Two weeks ago Shine told me in evening that 'today is the deadline for submission in a conference'. I came back in the evening from hostel, and prepared to make draft. It was Modern Trends in Operating Systems, organized by Konark Institute of Science & technology Bhubaneswar(www.kist.ac.in). I planned to submit the survey paper. Due to page-limit discussion two schemes ( key predistribution schemes based on generalized quadrangle and 3-design) had to be scrapped. And the modified paper I submitted there just an hour ago of deadline.

After 2 days they confirmed that our paper has been selected. Consulted with my M.Tech thesis guide. He gave the permision. But I was in fix. Whether I should attend that. The points that came to my mind in favor of attending those are: 1. Since there will be many invited lectures (one by prof Rajib Mall from IIT KGP) on operating system, listening to those will be one kind of preparation for phd interview ! 2. My guide will also be delivering an invited lecture there. 3. If I go one day in advance I can meet my parents in Bhubaneswar Railway station on their journey to Sai Baba Hospital. 4. Visit to Lord Jagannath Temple and Puri Beach.

Srichandan agreed to join me for Puri trip. Many days ago we three - Shine, Srichandan and myself planned that we will go to puri together. So we left Rourkela on 26th March. Reached Puri next day around 10 AM. We walked all the way to Puri swargadwar beach through the temple road. Sat there on the sand for a while. Then we decided we should take bath together. So kept our luggage on the chair on rent. We had bath for one hour. It was really nice. We hold each others hand. The force of tide was making us to shift not to straight back, but little bit towards puri hotel. During last Deepawali, two b.tech 3rd sem EE students from our NIT died in puri during their bath.

We completed our bath at 12:30 PM. After that we left for Lord Jagannath Deb Darshan. Before this, I visited Puri two times. First time, I was only 4-5 years old. Then my grand father was alive. I remember grand father, grand mother, aunt (choto pisi), and my parents. Only two things I remember of that visit. First, where we stayed in the lodge/hotel, the house owner had a plenty of collection of lottery tickets. In our childhood lottery ticket was also a thing to wonder. Second was a very interesting. Either in Khanda -giri or in Uday-giri there was lots of large sized monkeys. we were offering groundnut to few of these monkeys. Suddenly one monkey snatched the packet of groundnut (thonga) from my hand. Then I tried to re-snatch it from that monkey. After this It happened like this. The monkey tried a big slap on me. But my father was alert enough to lift me by his one hand, and the slap didnt hit me !

Second time I visted puri when I was in in class VI. This time we - my parents, my brother, and Shyam babu sir, and his wife went together. This time we met my aunt and uncle (maasi - mesomoshai) in the beach one day. But this time we went inside the temple bu didnt visit the lord. It was heavy rush then. And also that time it was impossible to see the lord without help of priests (famous or infamous panda of puri). I dont remeber if we had seen the lord Jagannath in our first trip.

So this time I was little bit excited that I will see the Lord jagannath. When we enterd the temple, it was closed for a while. We came back from the inside temple after realising that we have to take our offerings from the outside. In the trustee office we took the prasad, ther a panda guided us which kind of prasad we should take if we want to take it to home etc. then he came with us inside the temple. We saw the lord. I was feeling very peace within myslef while visiting the Lord jagannath. Srichandan told me that by touching the Garuda-stambha whatever one wishes it gets filled up. The priest who accompanied us shown us the mark of feet of Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanya dev. That place also unique in a way that a person, however small he/she is, will be able see the Lord Jagannath from that place. After that the priest provided us the mahaprasad inside the trustee office. we ate that. While eating he told us some facts about the temple. He told that the kitchen of Puri timeple is the largest restaurent in the world. 100 ovens are there. 500 cooks are there, and 150 assistants are there. Everyday, clay pots of lakhs (i forgot the amount, probably of 15 lakhs) are used there. After that we told how much we should give him. He told as you are student, whatever you want to give you give. We were in a fix. We asked him how much we should give to him. He told you cant satisfy fire and brahman, whose demand never satisfies. Srichandan offered him Rs 61. He accepted it without hesitation. Even after listening that my father is going to undergo treatment of heart in Sai baba hospital, he wrote my father's name in his plam, and it seemed he will pray for him. I took the mahaprasad for my parents also. While returning we realized that the priest literally took very less from us. We took his contact number. After this we returned to railway station and took the puri-sambalpur intercity express to reach bhubaneswar. I took a room in a lodge in Rajmahal chowk area. While I was in lodge, imy father phoned me and told that my mother is getting teeth pain and he asked me take some medicine for her from a medical shop. After the bath, we came for station, as the timing for arrival of East Coast express at bhubaneswar was 19:20. It was 40 minutes late. Srichandans train left at 20:00 hour. The east-coast train came at platfrom numbner 4. My parents were in coach S2. Srikanta-kaku, Subhash-babu and family of his daughter were also accompanying my parents. I ate bhaat, aalu-bhaate, aalu-posto, maach-bhaja in side the train only. The train had 20 minutes of stoppage in that station. I gave the prasad and medicine to them. The train left at 20:30 hour.

The next day I took the bus for Khurda to reach KIST college for the conference. Only four persons were there to present their paper. May be in next day some more people will present their paper. I saw in the proceedings that one paper was co-authored by prof Pabitra Pal Chaudhury of ISI kolkata, who was my MCA dissertation guide. Few papers were co-authored by prof Rajib Mall. As my paper was presented on that day afternoon only (After each paper presentation organisers gave the presentator a good momento), I was feeling to leave bhubaneswar that day only. so i cancelled my ticket which was on next day, and took the tapaswini express at 20:20. I reuested TTE for a birth, and he gave a side upper birth. As there were three births in side, the sleep was very uncomfortable. Also I was feeling itching sensation (may be due to our bath at sea), and the sleep was very disturbing throughout the night.

First Publication

I submitted two papers together in eprint Archive. After 7-8 days of waiting, i first got the reply form the Editor that survey paper was rejected. Was feeling very bad... After 2-3 more days another mail from editor confirmed me that paper on weakness of orhtogonal array based key predistribution was selected ( http://eprint.iacr.org/2009/114 ). I read the mail in Lab. I was so happy ! Instatly told all my friends who were present there.

Sourav-da told me to disagree with the editors with their comments, if there is valid ground for disagreeing. I replied editors with my views on their comments for rejection of the survey paper. Later again I posted that paper with title changed - Survey is replaced by the term Revisited. Also in their space for keywords I didnt write combinatorial design in first attempt- which I now realize was a one mojor factor ..., I wrote this time... And finally this paper is also accepted( http://eprint.iacr.org/2009/131 ).

Friday, February 27, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire

I was the among the last persons to watch Slumdog Millionaire in our C V Raman Hall. Ramana, Shine and myself watched this movie after the dinner yesterday in Ramana's room. We decided day before yesterday that next day we'll be watching it.

Actually, on Monday, 23 Feb (Shiv Ratri) when I went for breakfast I heard that Slumdog has won 2 Oscar award out of 2 nominations till that time...more to follow... around 1 hour later, when i heard huge clapping, came immediately and then A. R Rahaman was delivering his speech for his first Oscar Award.. thanked people in Mumbai and Chennai film industry, .. told a phrase in Tamil (thats a very good thing among the Tamil - they love their mother tounge so much !!).. then he had a live performance for 2 songs.. and again immediately after that another Oscar for best Song nomination.. I wish to write about the greatnes of A. R. Rahaman in my next post... On that day itself I was planning to see it.. but that day was full packed scheduled of fun (wish to share soon..)

What I was writting... about the movie... the print quality was nice.. which is very rare as most movies that available in hostel LAN is pirated (who will wait for good CD's to arrive !! )... I doubt that some part of the movie was missing after it ends.. as we got only one song - Ringa-Ringa.. Jai Ho was at the very end !! Though according to stroy, the lyrics of Jay Ho is perfectly alright at the end....

My First Post

I remember the days in class V (in Shyam Sundarpur Patna High School, in the then undivided Medinipur) when our Bengali teacher (Satya Babu) used to encourage about writting .... He also used to tell us the name of classic books and their authors.. And by this process we enriched - atleast knowing the name of books.. Which also helped me in General Knowledge.. I sometimes wonder that there was a time when we used take part in Quizes.. Where are those enthusiasm now !!! Anyway, as I was saying, at that time, even I tried to write few poems !!! I must confess it was difficult... And that did not progress much either... It is said that we must keep our pace with the present.. so after much hesitation, I thought lets give a try to it...